I like the idea that one can accumulate a "life resume". I guess what I mean by life resume is a list of highlights throughout your life that have made a significant impact in the happiness or growth of a person. I believe that a lot of the stuff that I write down in this blog might be part of that resume and it is important to try and capture at least a fraction of the memory of what went on for personal reflection reasons, and maybe even for other eyes that might get something from it.
I am attempting to make a conscious decision to stop looking at these endeavors as successes or failures because I am coming to the conclusion that the ultimate outcome is growth as a person. In those terms, every time I gear up for a big adventure, whether it be an ultra marathon, or a big backpacking trip (within the context of this blog), it always results in a success. In terms of a tangible outcome of the 2018 San Francisco One Day, I was not successful. I ran 77 miles around a one mile loop course by the bay. I quit with about eight hours still left on the clock because the cost/reward equation just wasn't working out for me. I had an "A" goal of running 109 miles to get a mileage PR, and a "B" goal of at least running 100 miles and contributing to Quicksilver team points. At 77 miles severe chafing started to take it's toll on me and I was doing the mental math and decided it wasn't worth it anymore.
When I analyze what went wrong I would summarize it like this:
1) While the 6 p.m. start was novel and allowed for running through the night with fresh legs, it seemed that I for whatever reason was unable to manage moisture accumulation.
2) Body glide failed me for the first time. I applied the lubricant periodically, taking time every once in a while to completely towel down and start over again. I even changed my shirt because I started to suspect that moisture was soaking from my shirt into my shorts as well. While I think all this helped, it was just prolonging the inevitable.
3) I ran a good pace. I finished 62 miles by hour 12 (6 a.m. in the morning), and thought my goals were totally within reach. All I had to do was average four miles per hour for the rest of the race.
4) The sun did some damage. I completely changed into dry clothes once the sun came up, hoping that might get me through the next 12 hours. The problem was that it was getting warm fast, and heat was aggravating my chafing even more.
5) The sleep deprivation started getting to me. It's not that I wanted to stop and take a nap or had a hard time keeping moving - it was more that I started getting a little grumpy with the sheer mass of young beautiful San Franciscans getting out there for their morning jogs in their yoga pants and smiles and bouncy strides. I was constantly having to dodge and navigate the crowd with very little patience still left in my head.
These were the things that went wrong for me. But it's all good! It was actually a beautiful experience. Running through the night with fresh head and bouncy legs was wonderful. There was a nearly full moon above the San Francisco skyline keeping us company. It was bright enough to cast shadows on the course - which was interesting. Every-time I ran along the bay said of the lagoon I heard the waves from the bay lapping up on the beach. It was a peaceful and eery feeling cruising through that night. It was also wonderful to get rid of all of the tourists once it got really late and all that was left was us crazies banging out the miles. A new innovation for this race was that you got to change directions around the loop at will, so we were constantly greeting each other and joking and high fiving and stuff. It was also funny to get the random San Francisco night owl weirdo person coming by on their bike, electric scooter, whatever with neon lights and strange music blasting - like that was the best way they could figure out how to spend their Friday night/Saturday morning.
This was a well run race with wonderful volunteers and a fantastic aid station and lots of friends. I will probably be back some day...
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